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What's in a Name?

If you think it's hard to get hold of potassiuain I stood there with a pound bottle in'Potassiu 'chemically pure') with a small skull and crossbones underneath

The felloned the bottle polished his glasses and blinked at me He was Associate Professor Helht, stocky, with a soft chin, plu paunch, a shock of brown hair, and a look of co in iment

I said, 'Do you mean to say this just stands on your shelf, Professor?'

He said in the kind of deliberate tone he probably used in lecturing his students, 'Yes, it always has, Inspector Along with the rest of the chemicals in alphabetic order'

I glanced about the cluttered room Shelves lined the upper reaches of all the walls, and bottles, large and small, filled them all

This one,' I pointed out, 'is poison'

'A great many of them are,' he said with composure

'Do you keep track of what you've got?'

'In a general way' He rubbed his chin 'I know I have that bottle'

'But suppose someone came in here and helped himself to a spoonful of this stuff Would you be able to tell?'

Professor Rodney shook his head 'I couldn't possibly'

'Well, then, who could get into this laboratory? It is kept locked?'

He said, 'It's locked when I leave in the evening, unless I forget During the day, it isn't locked, and I'm in and out'

'In other words Professor, anyone could come in here, even someone from the street, walk off with some of the cyanide, and no one would ever know'

'I'm afraid so'

'Tell me Professor, why do you keep this much cyanide in the place anyway? To kill rats?'

'Good heavens, no' He seeht 'Cyanide is soanic reactions to form necessary intermediates, to provide a proper basic medium, to catalyze-'

'I see I see Nohat other labs is cyanide available in this way?'

'In most of them,' he answered at once 'Even in the student labs After all, it's a common chemical, routinely used in syntheses'

'I wouldn't call its use today routine,' I said

He sighed and said, 'No, I suppose not' He added thoughtfully, They used to call them the "Library Twins" '

I nodded I could see the reason for the nicknairl librarians were very alike

Not close up, of course One had a small pointed chin on a round face, and the other had a square jaw and a long nose Still, bend them over a desk and both had honey-blond hair parted in the middle with a similar wave Look them quickly in the face and you would probably notice first wide-set eyes of about the saether at a ht and both, probably, with the same brand and size uplift brassiere Both had tris Today they had even dressed similarly Both wore blue

There was no confusing the t, though The one with the small chin and round face was full of cyanide, and quite dead

The si that struck me when I arrived with irl slu straight doith a broken teacup on the floor beneath like a period under an exclamation point Her name, it turned out, was Louella-Marie Busch There was a second girl, like the first one brought back to life, white and shaken, staring straight ahead and letting the police and their work flow about her without see to notice Her name was Susan Morey

The first question I asked was, 'Relatives?' They weren't Not even second cousins

I looked about the library There hole shelves of books in sis, then other shelves with books in another set of bindings They were volumes of different research journals In another rooraphs, and older books In the back was a special alcove containing recent numbers of unbound research periodicals in dull and closely printed paper covers Froht have seated a hundred people if all were fully occupied Fortunately that wasn't the case

We got the story out of Susan Morey in flat, toneless pieces

Mrs Nettler, the old Senior Librarian had taken off for the afternoon and had left the two girls in charge That, apparently, was not unusual

At two o'clock, give or take five minutes, Louella-Marie took herself into the back room behind the library desk There, in addition to new books that awaited cataloguing, stacks of periodicals that awaited binding, reserved books that awaited their reservers, there was also a ss for weak tea

Two o'clock tea was apparently usual, too

I said, 'Did Louella-Marie prepare the tea every day?'

Susan looked at me out of her blank blue eyes 'Sometimes Mrs Nettler does, but usually Lou-Louella-Marie did'

When the tea was ready, Louella-Marie eed to say so and after a few moments the two retired

'Both of you?' I asked sharply 'Who took care of the library?'

Susan shrugged as though this were a minor point to worry about, and said, 'We can see out the door If anyone caone out'

'Did anyone come to the desk?'

'No one It's intersession Hardly anyone's around'

By intersession shesemester was over and the summer sessions had not yet started

I learned quite a bit about college life that day

What was left of the story was little enough The tea bags were already out of the gently steaar had been added

I interrupted 'You both take sugar?'

Susan said slowly, 'Yes But mine didn't have any'

'No?'

'She never forgot before She knows I take it I just took a sip or two and I was going to reach for the sugar and tell her, you knohen-'

When Louella-Marie gave a queer strangled cry, dropped the cup, and was dead in a minute After that Susan screamed and eventually we came

The routine passed serprints had been taken The na were taken and they were sent hoar boas the obvious villain Sa

There had been six men in the library at the tihtened, confused, or sick, depending, I suppose, on their personalities The sixth was a ed man, an outsider, who talked with a Gere at all He looked frightened, confused, and sick, all three

My sidekick, Hathaas leading theet thee and have theet to them in detail

One of the students broke away and strode pasteach sleeve above the elbow 'Pete Pete'

Pete was built like a football player except that his profile looked as though he had never been within half afor et jealous easily

Pete was looking past the girl, his face co apart at the seams till its prettiness was drowned in uneasy horror He said in a hoarse, choking way, 'How did Lolly come to'

Susan gasped, 'I don't know I don't know' She kept trying to meet his eye

Pete pulled away He never looked at Susan once, kept staring over her shoulder Then he responded to Hathaway's grip on his elbow and let himself be led away

I said, 'Boyfriend?'

Susan tore her eyes fro student 'What?'

'Is he your boy friend?'

She looked down at her twisting hands 'We've been out on dates'

'How serious?'

She whispered, 'Pretty serious'

'Does he know the other girl, too? He called her Lolly?' Susan shrugged 'Well'

'Let's put it this way Did he go out with her?'

'Sometimes'

'Seriously'

She snapped, 'How should I know?'

'Come on, now Was she jealous of you?'

'What's all this about?'

'Soar and put the mixture in only one cup Suppose Louella-Marie was jealous enough of you to try to poison you and leave herself a clear field with our friend Pete And suppose she took the wrong teacup herself by mistake'

Susan said, That's crazy Louella-Marie wouldn't do such a thing'

But her lips were thin, her eyes sparkled, and I can tell hate in a voice when I hear it

Professor Rodney came into the library He was the first s toward hirown no warmer

He had begun by infore

I said, 'I'e now, Professor'

He said, 'Of the investigation perhaps, Inspector, but it is I who am responsible to the Dean and I propose to fulfill my responsibilities'

And although he hadn't the figure of an aristocrat, ed to look at h there were a e side

Now he said, 'Mrs Nettler is in my office She heard the news bulletin, apparently, and caitated You will see her?' He made it sound like an order

'Bring her in Professor' I made it sound like permission

Mrs Nettler was in the usual quandary of the average old lady She didn't knohether to be horrified or fascinated at the closeness hich death had struck Horror won out after she looked into the inner office and noticed as left of the tea things The body was gone by then, of course

She flopped into a chair and began crying 'I had tea here ht have been'

I said as quietly and soothingly as I could e, 'When did you drink tea here, Mrs Nettler?'

She turned in her seat, looked up 'Why-why, just after one, I think I offered Professor Rodney a cup, I remember It was just after one, Professor Rodney, wasn't it?'

A trace of annoyance crossed Rodney's plump face He said to me, 'I was here a moment just after lunch to consult a reference Mrs, Nettler did offer a cup I was too busy, I'm afraid, to accept or to note the time exactly'

I grunted and turned back to the old lady 'Do you take sugar, Mrs Nettler?'

'Yes, sir'

'Did you take sugar?'

She nodded and started crying again

I waited a bit Then, 'Did you notice the condition of the sugar bowl?'

'It was-it was-' A sudden surprise at the question seemed to put her on her feet 'It was empty and

I filled it ar and I rear was gone and I wished the girls would-'

Maybe it was the ain

I nodded to Hathaway to lead her away

Between i and 2 par bowl and then added just a bit of laced sugar- very neatly laced sugar

Maybe it was Mrs Nettler's appearance that pumped librarianship back into Susan, because when Hathaway caars-he already had thein the library, sir'

Hathaas so surprised he blew the ar in his pocket

Then the girl stepped briskly to one of the long tables and reached for a large volume that lay open on it Hathaas ahead of her 'What are you going to do, Miss?'

Susan looked co to put it back on the shelves'

'Why? What is it?' He looked down at the open page I was there too, by then I looked over his shoulder

It was Gernize it when I see it The printing was se with lines of letters attached at various places I knew enough, too, to know those were chemical formulas

I put er in the place, closed the book and looked at the backstrap It said, 'Beilstein-Organische Cheain It was 233 and the first words, just to give you an idea, were 4'-chlor-4-brom-2-nitro-diphenylather-C12H7O3 NClBr

Hathaas busy copying things down

Professor Rodney was at the table too, which athered round the book

The professor said in a cool voice, as though he were on a platform with a pointer in one hand and a piece of chalk in the other, 'This is a volume of Beilstein' (He pronounced it Bile-shtine) 'It's a kind of encyclopedia of organic compounds It lists hundreds of thousands of them'

'In this book?' demanded Hathaway

This book is only one of more than sixty volumes and supplementary volumes It is a tremendous Geranic che pace and, second, because of the interference of politics and war Even so, there is nothing even faintly approaching its usefulness in English For all research anic chemistry, these volumes are an absolute necessity'

The professor actually patted the book as he spoke, a fond pat 'Before dealing with any unfaood practice to look it up in Beilstein It will give you methods of preparation, properties, references, and so on It acts as a starting point The various coical systeive several lectures in anic syntheses which deal entirely witha particular compound somewhere in the sixty volumes'

I don't kno long he anic syntheses and it was tiet down to cases I said abruptly, 'Professor, I want to speak to you in your laboratory'

I suppose I had some notion that cyanide was kept in a safe, that every bit of it was accounted for, that people had to sign out for it when they wanted soet soht supply what proof we needed

And there I stood with a pound of it in e that anyone could have any a

And he said thoughtfully, 'They used to call them the "Library Twins"'

I nodded 'So?'

'Only that it proves how superficial the judg alike about them except the accident of hair and eyes What happened in the library, Inspector?'

I told him Susan's story briefly and watched him

He shook his head 'I suppose you think the dead girl planned hts weren't for sale at the moment I said, 'Don't you?'

'No She was incapable of it Her attitude toward her duties was a pleasant and helpful one Besides, ould she?'

'There's a student,' I said 'Peter is his first name'

'Peter van Norden,' he said at once 'A reasonably bright student, but, somehoorthless'

'Girls look at these things differently, Professor Both librarians were apparently interested Susan may have been the more successful and Louella-Marie may have decided on direct measures'

'And then proceeded to take the wrong cup?'

I said, 'People do queer things under tension'

'Not this queer,' he said 'One cup was left unsugared, so thechances Presumably even if she had not carefully memorized which cup hich, she could count on the sweetness to give it away She could easily have avoided a fatal dose'

I said dryly, 'Both girls usually took sugar The dead girl was used to sweet tea In the excite a bell'

'I don't believe it'

'What's the alternative, Professor? The sugar was hocused after Mrs Nettler's tea at one o'clock Did Mrs Nettler do it?'

He looked up sharply 'What possible motive?'

I shrugged 'Sheher job away' That's nonsense She's retiring before the fall session begins'

'You were there, Professor,' I said softly

He took it in stride, to my surprise 'Motive?' he said

I said, 'You're not too old to have been interested in Louella-Marie, Professor Suppose she had threatened to report some word or act of yours to the Dean'

The Professor sirl got the cyanide? Why should one cup rear but I didn't prepare the tea'